Working with Gimp...

Morris On Location

Working to enhance this photo...I blew her out in the original and didn't shoot in RAW, so i was trying to correct that and make the photo more interesting..let me know what you think ...any and all advice is welcome..

ziggy53

There are several problems with the image IMO and only some can be corrected.

The light is coming, apparently, from our lower right and that is creating shadows which are not really becoming to the little girl. This cannot be corrected in software and I did not find any suitable modification appropriate to the image.

The image appears to have been taken in wide angle and close to the subject. Notice how large the girl's hand is in relation to the face. The composition amplifies the effect. This can be countered somewhat by:

Enlarging the Canvas to 300% in both directions.
Centering the original image.
Add new Layer.
Adding a Paint-Bucket Fill to the new layer.
Move new layer if necessary to show original on top.
Flatten image.
Filters-Distorts-Lens Distortion-Main (-100%)

This will create a distortion opposite to the lens distortion. You will need to crop the image later.

The flash is also much brighter in the center of the image. This can be corrected somewhat by:

Create a new layer.
Fill new layer with white.
Make sure the new layer is over the original image and selected.
Assign Black to the foreground color and White to the background color.
Apply a Gradient fill with a shape of Radial. Start in the center of the image and draw out to the extent required of the radial fill. I started in the center and drew out to the edge of the original image side. This is easiest to see if you use an opacity of 50% or so.
Now adjust the opacity until the image has the desired smoothness of lighting.
Flatten image.
Adjust Levels to required black points.


Correcting the lens distortion and the flash lighting evenness will improve the image, but that pesky lighting from underneath kinda spoils the mood for me.

I love the concept and the little girl so I recommend re-shooting, correcting for lighting of course.

Morris On Location

hopes there's some left..
I am looking forward to reshooting...I hope there's some seeds left...thanks for your input..:)